Action and other Maine municipalities in similar circumstances should being given an exemption under state law from having to comply with the state’s newly enacted school consolidation law in return for other efforts at educational savings in substitution of not consolidating with another school district, which is the requirement under this rule for smaller school districts in the state to save money on educational spending.

After reading in the newspapers about Action’s troubles with this new rule in the state’s statutes, I read that the town is actually doing things to save money on educational spending despite the hardship of not being able to consolidate with another Maine school district. For example, the town is pooling its spending on education with another town on such items like school cafeteria services or buying school supplies in vastness. Why, then, is this new consolidation law not awarding them for these alternative efforts and penalizing them monetarily instead? If you ask someone for a required donation of $100.00, but only get $50.00 in return instead for your mandate are you going to tell this someone that they have done something wrong and should be punished for it?

I understand the state is trying to save money on education in tough budget times, but an ironhanded approach should be reconsidered in this case for a more humble approach that all school districts in Maine will find more flexible to meet whatever their situation is when it comes to saving money on educational spending in their school districts and providing more choices on how a school district can do this in this law is one way of demonstrating this more humbler approach.